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Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

The material manifestation of the Hittite libation ritual, the vessels made from different materials, are known to us through the contemporary written evidence, the representations in the visual arts, and the archaeologically attested examples. All three types of evidence reveal a variety of vessel forms used for the acts of libation. In this study, I focus on the objects themselves and provide an overview of their specific forms: the beak spouted vessels, the ovoid shaped relief vessels, the arm shaped vessels and BIBRU shaped in divine attributes. These vessels have been previously published in site reports, survey books, and museum catalogues, as individual examples or part of an assemblage, but not as a corpus nor as agents in the ritual. The hitherto unpublished examples are introduced to expand and revise the typological classifications. I propose to highlight the materials and the forms of these vessels as important for the Hittites not only to serve a decorative function but as encompassing a presence and agency to achieve the completion of the ritual: serving and pleasing the deities. Therefore, I describe, contextualize, and analyze the vessels in order to outline the relation between form and function, as well as categorizing them according their formal qualities into sub-types. As the containers, they embody the gift, the sacrificial liquid, offered to the deities, preceding the offering and even the act itself. I define their role as “the fourth element of sacrifice,” following the offerer, the receiver and the liquid offered. The vessels are reevaluated in this study as agents dictating the respective acts of libation, and defining the ritual.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 319-337). Also available via World Wide Web.

Throughout history, people have made or acquired vessels from which to sip their favourite beverage. In the contemporary domestic setting, households frequently accumulate multiples of the same type of object in numbers that are considerably greater than is necessary and practical for use alone. Of these many objects there are often individual pieces that have special significance for the owner or user. Some are so valued that they may even be removed and set aside because of their perceived importance. The research was initiated by a previous study of tea drinking vessels coupled with a desire, as an object maker and collector, to find out why people have special items that they designate as personally important. The aim was to identify how significance could be recognised in specific objects and whether the notion that a group of features used to gauge such objects could be conveyed into studio based work. The research outcomes are evidenced in a text-based document (which articulates the theoretical and empirical elements of the enquiry) and a body of creative studio work developed in response to aspects of the investigation. The document encompasses two components of the study. The first references material from the fields of museum and cultural studies, pivotal in focusing the enquiry. This contributed to the compilation of a general and speculative inventory of qualities that might pertain to objects deemed ???significant???. During these early investigations it became evident that a more in depth and contemporary analysis of significant drinking vessels, their owners and/or users was required. A Survey Questionnaire regarding personal use and special drinking vessels preceded a series of Interviews with a selected group of Australia curators, artists, academics and collectors who discussed and analysed their association with a personally significant drinking vessel. Subsequently, the content of these interviews became central to the focus of the research and outcomes. The research isolates a number of attributes that are commonly identified in objects that, whatever their condition, are deemed ???significant???. These describe the maker, usage, ownership, association and historical context. The perceived value or worth of the object for its owner, is recognised as a consequence of significance and declares the object as distinctive. This outcome is clearly validated by the interviews. The studio work develops from the fusion of personal narrative that has been enhanced by findings of the research. In particular, it references the cherished object, most especially those pieces that have been retained despite the ravages of time and use. The resulting work was exhibited as Trace Elements ??? Marking Time: Significance, the Vessel and the Domestic at Kudos Gallery, Paddington in April 2004.

Throughout history, people have made or acquired vessels from which to sip their favourite beverage. In the contemporary domestic setting, households frequently accumulate multiples of the same type of object in numbers that are considerably greater than is necessary and practical for use alone. Of these many objects there are often individual pieces that have special significance for the owner or user. Some are so valued that they may even be removed and set aside because of their perceived importance. The research was initiated by a previous study of tea drinking vessels coupled with a desire, as an object maker and collector, to find out why people have special items that they designate as personally important. The aim was to identify how significance could be recognised in specific objects and whether the notion that a group of features used to gauge such objects could be conveyed into studio based work. The research outcomes are evidenced in a text-based document (which articulates the theoretical and empirical elements of the enquiry) and a body of creative studio work developed in response to aspects of the investigation. The document encompasses two components of the study. The first references material from the fields of museum and cultural studies, pivotal in focusing the enquiry. This contributed to the compilation of a general and speculative inventory of qualities that might pertain to objects deemed ???significant???. During these early investigations it became evident that a more in depth and contemporary analysis of significant drinking vessels, their owners and/or users was required. A Survey Questionnaire regarding personal use and special drinking vessels preceded a series of Interviews with a selected group of Australia curators, artists, academics and collectors who discussed and analysed their association with a personally significant drinking vessel. Subsequently, the content of these interviews became central to the focus of the research and outcomes. The research isolates a number of attributes that are commonly identified in objects that, whatever their condition, are deemed ???significant???. These describe the maker, usage, ownership, association and historical context. The perceived value or worth of the object for its owner, is recognised as a consequence of significance and declares the object as distinctive. This outcome is clearly validated by the interviews. The studio work develops from the fusion of personal narrative that has been enhanced by findings of the research. In particular, it references the cherished object, most especially those pieces that have been retained despite the ravages of time and use. The resulting work was exhibited as Trace Elements ??? Marking Time: Significance, the Vessel and the Domestic at Kudos Gallery, Paddington in April 2004.

The research project concerned cultural and economic transfers between the Etruscan world and Attica during the Archaic period and focused on the copy and the adaptation of Etruscan vase shapes by some potters of the Athenian Kerameikos. This being a vast and known subject, it was decided to concentrate on the case study of one shape, the kyathos, for which a large range of aspects were studied: the origins and typology of the shape in Etruria and its variants according to regional tastes. Etruscan black-figure productions are also included. The research then moved on the Attic shores and proposed a study of Attic kyathos shapes (compared to the Etruscan models) and tried to identify workshops and potters’ shaping habits. This approach is close to H. Bloesch and E. A. Mackay studies, but also to C. Orton’s system of “envelopes”. In another chapter of the work, several aspects such as the contexts, distribution, uses, functions and manipulation of the kyathoi (both Etruscan and Attic) have been studied. In another part of the thesis, I drew a synthesis about other Etruscan shapes copied in Athens. Their situation has been compared with the kyathos. In this way, I tried to demonstrate the different aspects and phenomena which lead to these copies of foreign shapes in Athens (and the Etruscan demand for them). The work shows how complex is the system of reception of foreign objects/images/practices by both the Etruscans and the Greeks. / Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished